


New Beginnings

by SugdenLovesDingle



Series: Robert Week 2019 [5]
Category: Emmerdale
Genre: M/M, Soft Husbands, Starting Over, moving abroad, the story they deserve
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-27
Updated: 2019-10-27
Packaged: 2021-01-04 11:20:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,388
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21196808
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SugdenLovesDingle/pseuds/SugdenLovesDingle
Summary: Robert week day 4 - Location/ surprisethe château by the river they deserve





	New Beginnings

“Paris?!” Aaron yelled when Robert walked through the door. “When were you planning on telling me you’d taken a job in Paris?!”

“I haven’t!” Robert replied when he got over the initial shock of getting yelled at.

“That’s not what Jimmy just told me. In the shop. In front of half the damn village!”

“Since when does Jimmy know anything about… anything?”

“Oh Aaron, you must be so excited, moving to France and starting a brand new life.” Aaron mimicked.

“They’ve offered it to me but I haven’t said yes. I told them I’d have to think about it and talk about it with my husband.”

“But you want to take it, don’t you?”

“It’s a good job. Good opportunity.” Robert said, evading the question.

“That’s not what I asked.”

Robert sighed.

“Yes. Yes, ok? Yes I want to take it. But I don’t want to move to France without you.”

“Right so I can either give up my entire life here, my business, my family, everything, or keep you from accepting your dream job. That’s just great.” Aaron said, crossing his arms in front of his chest.

“No. It’s not like that. I want us to talk about it, together, and decide together. That’s kind of what this whole marriage thing is about.” Robert sighed. “It’s a good opportunity. It would be great for the haulage company, and the money is really good too.”

“Ah so everything is about money again, is it?!”

“Not everything, but it helps. We’d be able to afford surrogacy in no time. No more scraping together the pennies. This time next year we could have a baby on the way.”

That seemed to calm Aaron down.

“But our entire lives are here. Liv, Seb, Vic and Ellis and the little one, mum and Paddy and the baby… both our businesses, our friends.”

“I know. Which is why I thanked them for the opportunity but told them I’d have to discuss it with you first. Golden opportunity or not, I’d rather be here with you, than in Paris on my own.”

Aaron sat down at the kitchen table.

“Sorry for yelling at you. I should know better than to listen to Jimmy.”

“It’s ok. I understand. I’d lose my mind too if I thought you’d taken a job in another country without telling me.” Robert said and sat down too and put a plastic bag on the table.

“What’s that?”

“Bottle of red. For dinner. To set the mood. It’s French…”

“Is that how you wanted to tell me? Get me wine drunk first?” Aaron joked

Robert gave him a small smile.

“Do you want some?”

“Not right now.” Aaron shook his head. “Tell me about this job.”

“It’s this French company we’ve done business with for years. They want to merge with Home James and continue as one big company.” Robert explained and Aaron nodded as a sign for him to go on. “They’re expanding the business in France and setting up an office in Germany too and there are plans for an Italy office.”

“So we’re moving to Rome now?”

“Maybe? If we wanted to…” Robert trailed off. “They just want me running one of their new offices while Jimmy keeps things going at this end.”

Aaron nodded.

“So why does Jimmy think we’re moving to France?”

“He was there when they made the offer. It’ll be easier for us to move because Seb isn’t in school yet so he sort of pushed me forward for the job.”

“And how are we supposed to be able to afford moving to another country?”

“They’re paying for everything. The French job comes with a house near Paris and we could use the haulage trucks to move our stuff.”

“You’ve got it all figured out, haven’t you?”

“Nothing has been decided yet.”

“How long have they given you to decide?”

“End of the month.”

“Right. So about two to three weeks.”

Robert nodded.

“But I can call them and tell them no.”

“You know I’d go anywhere with you… but France? Forever?”

“Nothing is forever. We can always come back if we want to. And we could visit. We could drive here or get the Eurostar from Paris.”

“What about Liv? And Seb?”

“They could both come with us. I’ve seen pictures of the house, it’s massive and has a massive garden too.”

“Our château by the river.” Aaron said, thinking back to the conversation they’d had a while ago.

They’d joked about moving to the French countryside after sharing a bottle of wine and spending a night watching house hunting shows. Giving in to being an old married couple instead of going out to some club with Vic and Ellis.

“Yeah and plenty of room for a veg patch.” Robert added. “Full of veg you and Seb won’t eat.”

“I’m not that bad! I eat vegetables!”

“Beans on toast doesn’t count.” Robert said and they both laughed.

“Seb would grow up speaking French.” Aaron said after a while. “Or both French and English.”

“And the new baby too.”

“Yeah… You really want this don’t you?”

“Only if you want it too.”

Aaron nodded.

“Do you have the pictures of the house?”

“Sure. They emailed them to me. Hang on.” Robert said and took his phone out to find the email. “Here.” He handed Aaron his phone. “I googled the address too to check out the area. It’s nice.”

“It is nice.” Aaron agreed, scrolling through the photos. “And it’s actually by a river?” he asked laughingly.

“A creek. Sort of. We’d have to put a fence up until Seb is old enough and can swim properly… but…”

“Yeah… it’s what we dreamt of.”

“Yeah… only it’s in another country.”

“There’s that.” Aaron said and put the phone down. “But what am I supposed to do all day while you’re at work? Be a stay at home dad with Seb?”

“I don’t know.” Robert said honestly. “Maybe Cain has some contacts around there? Fix you up with a mechanic job?”

“I don’t really want to go back to that full time.” Aaron admitted. “I could give Emile a call… maybe he knows something…”

“Yeah you could try that. But do you really want to?”

“You want to. That’s reason enough. You’ve always gone above and beyond to make me happy, the least I can do is call a mate to see what our options are.”

“Alright. Ok. Call him.” Robert agreed and got up to press a kiss to the top of Aaron’s head. “You’re amazing. I love you.”

“I love you too.” Aaron replied and pulled him down for a proper kiss.

“I should get started on dinner.” Robert said after reluctantly pulling away “Liv will be home soon and Charity should be back with Seb any minute now. Maybe some nice coq au vin? Or beef bourguignon to set the mood.”

“Or French fries.” Aaron said, putting on a thick American accent, making them both laugh. “Tell me what to do, I’ll help you cook.”

—

A few days later Robert came home to find his husband hunched over his laptop while speaking broken French on the phone.

“Oui. Bien sur. Oui. Merci. Yeah thanks, I try. Alright. Bye.”

“Who was that?”

“A mate of Emile’s. He’s got a large patch of land near the house, bigger than what I’ve got here…”

“Wait… what are you saying?”

“Nothing… yet. He wants to meet me… I told him we could drive there this weekend. Maybe we could take a look at the house too?”

“Are you serious? I thought you didn’t want to leave this place?”

“I didn’t say that. I just… it can’t hurt to just check things out right? It’s France, it’s not the other side of the world. And this place is ours so we could always come back if we don’t like it. Mum and Paddy are settled with Eve, and Liv could stay here if she wanted… We could do it.”

“A fresh start, just the two of us with Seb…” Robert started. “I googled schools and nurseries in the area last night and there is a good school about half an hour away.”

Aaron nodded and handed Robert his laptop.

“I found a school for children of expats. The whole curriculum is bilingual. So he’ll still speak English too… so he can still communicate with our lot here.”

Robert smiled.

“Are we really doing this?”

“Well… we can at least go take a look down there this weekend, can’t we?.” Aaron said, not being able to hide the grin on his face. “But let’s not tell mum just yet. Not until we’re sure. She’ll only stress out and she doesn’t need that right now.”

“You’re right. No use worrying her for nothing.” Robert agreed. “I’ll go make some calls so we can view the house this weekend. You book us a hotel or a B&B.” He instructed Aaron. “We can’t sleep in the car with Seb.”

It turned out, driving that far with a two year old in the back-seat was no easy feat.

Even though he was used to long car rides, Emmerdale to Liverpool was a whole different thing than Emmerdale to Paris, and Seb had gotten bored quickly. No amount of games, cuddles, songs, or films seemed to keep him happy for long.

“I suppose this is our life now.” Aaron commented. “If we do it I mean. We’ll be making this trip a lot.”

Robert nodded, keeping his eyes firmly on the road while he got used to driving on the other side.

“Yeah. Or we could fly. Or take the train. We have plenty of options.”

“When Liv gets her license too, the three of us could take turns driving.”

“Yeah, we’ll see.” Robert said and Aaron laughed.

“You don’t want to let her drive your car, do you?”

“Well she doesn’t have her license yet, so there’s no use thinking about it, is there?” He said and turned the car onto a side road in a town just west of Paris. “I think this is it. What number was it again?”

“547. I think it’ll be on the right here somewhere…”

“Wait… I recognise that sign. This is it.” Robert said pulling over in front of a large, white house, with a welcome sign at the start of the driveway.

“Do we just… drive up to the house?”

“Well… we might live here in a few months… so… why not?”

Robert drove up to the house and parked the car.

“Look Seb, this is our new house.” Aaron told the little boy who was curiously surveying their new surroundings.

“Maybe.”

“Yeah. Maybe.”

When they got out of the car they were instantly greeted by a woman in her 40s that Aaron guessed to be the estate agent.

“Hello, you must be Robert Sugden? I am Renee, I will show you around today.” She said, friendly while shaking hands with both Robert and Aaron.

“Hi, yes, I’m Robert and this is my husband Aaron, and our son Sebastian.” Robert said and Aaron frowned a little at the use of Seb’s full name.

“Well, let’s go inside so you can see your new house.”

It turned out, the pictures did not do the place justice at all. It was bigger and brighter than it had seemed and the kitchen almost made Robert salivate.

“Now upstairs we have the big bedroom for the parents with an en-suite bathroom.” Renee said as they followed her up the stairs, with Aaron carrying a sleepy Seb.

“It’s really nice.” Robert commented as they looked around the room and Aaron nodded in agreement. “How many bedrooms does the house have?” he asked. “For when the family wants to come visit.”

“Five in total. But the attic can be converted into a bedroom too and there is an office downstairs that can be a bedroom.” Renee told them as she showed them another room. “This could be your room.” She told Seb.

“Yeah it’s nice and big isn’t it mate?” Aaron asked him. “Plenty of room for your toys.”

“And a race car bed.” Robert added. “You’d like that wouldn’t you?” 

Aaron put him down and let him wander around.

“Daddy! Look!” Seb said excitedly when he looked out the window and started making sounds that sounded a lot like a neighing horse.

“Oh horses.” Aaron said, walking over to the window too. “Your granddaddy Paddy will never visit if we have horses here.”

“Is that our land too?” Robert asked.

“No, no, that is your neighbour. But you can put up a higher fence so they don’t bother you if you want.”

“I think we’ll be ok.” Robert said, looking at Seb who had climbed onto the windowsill with Aaron’s help and had his little face pressed against the window, trying to get the horses’ attention.

“Do you think we can go down there and pet the horses?” Aaron asked. “He loves animals.”

“Of course.” Renee said and took them back downstairs while also showing them the rest of the house.

There was a bedroom with a balcony that Liv had decided was hers during a video call with Aaron and one looking out on the creek behind the house both Robert and Aaron had wordlessly agreed to be the baby room.

The horses were friendly and obviously used to getting attention and more from whoever was at the other side of the fence, and Seb squealed in delight when they took the grass he’d picked for them from his little hand.

“You can do this every day if we live here.” Robert told him while petting one of the horses. “Maybe you can even learn how to ride. How about that?”

Suddenly Renee's phone rang and she excused herself to answer it.

“So. What do you think?” Aaron asked, not taking his eyes off Seb.

“I think we could be happy here, don’t you?” Robert replied, knowing his husband had already made up his mind, just like himself.

“Yeah, yeah I think we could… but my mum’s going to have a meltdown when she finds out.” Aaron sighed, looking up at Robert.

“Possibly.” Robert said, wrapping an arm around Aaron’s waist and kissing his temple while watching Seb play with the horses. “But it’ll be worth it.”


End file.
